5 Feb 2025
Director: Marie Amachoukeli
France
2023
84 min
Cléo lives with her widower Dad Arnaud and her nanny Gloria in Paris. She loves her father but Gloria is the emotional centre of her world. When Gloria must return to her home in Cape Verde to attend to her own family, she’s heartbroken and desperate to be reunited. Marie Amachoukeli’s solo directorial debut is an acutely affecting drama powered by a really astounding child actor. Full of personality with her thick glasses and a tangle of curls, Mauroy-Panzani’s intricate performance is a window back into the roiling intensity of a small child’s emotions, instincts, and inherently self-centred view of the world. A film that works both as a simple heartfelt drama and as a clear allegory of colonialism, Àma Gloria is a beautifully drawn study of a young girl learning about the broader contexts of her world and other people’s worlds.
Jerusalem Film Festival: 2023 winner of the Nechama Rivilin Award for Best International Film